Spirits Save Us From These Invaders! Spirit Island

(Photo Credit to Noble Knight Games)

Written by Ed Carter, Staff Writer

It is the time of great exploration. Nations have sent out colonists to explore and expand their empires. But what if the land is not uninhabited, and there are people living there now whose way of life will be ruined by the explorers? And further what if the denizens of these lands will do all they can to stop this invasion? Well, Spirit Island lets you explore and see if you can turn the invaders away and let the land remain with its rightful owners.

Spirit Island is a 1-4 player cooperative game where the players are spirits that protect the island from the waves of invaders whose goal is to explore, expand and exploit the resources of this island. The game controls the actions of the settlers and they follow a specific pattern of actions every turn. Players use cards to take actions in two phases with fast powers and slow powers. Taking action costs energy and as the game progresses, the spirits get stronger and have more powerful actions they can take, However, more turns give the invaders more ability to spread across the island. The more they spread the more they build and eventually will exploit the island. It is a game of challenging decisions and balance on how and where to use the island’s innate power to stave them off.

There is a lot of game in this box, with modules that add increasing difficulty and challenges, but we are just going to cover the base game. Each player will select a Spirit, take the corresponding player board, tokens, and deck of 6 basic power cards. They set up their player board by covering all of the action spaces except the first two in each row. Next, take the invasion board, and place a number of fear tokens and blight based on the player count as well as the invader exploration cards. Take 15 fear cards, and based on the instructions set them up divided by the phase markers. The more fear, the less the spirits need to achieve to win. Blight is like the time counter of the game, if the blight pool is ever empty, the invaders have become too strong and the players lose.

Divide the two decks of power cards into major and minor powers, and shuffle each into a face-down pile. Finally, place the number of island boards based on the player count, and each player sets up their island portion based on the island and their specific spirit. Each island will include where to place a starting city and town and explorers, as well as where the natives, the Dahan will start. Each island board will begin the game with some blight as well, but this is not part of the blight pool. Reveal the top exploration card, place one invader in each of the land types on the board, and move the explore card to the build section, and you are ready to begin.

The turns of the game are played in a specific order of phases; Spirit growth, pay for cards, play fast powers, invaders actions, slow powers and time passes. At the beginning of each round, the spirit players decide which growth action they want to take. They can gain more energy, and more cards, increase their influence on the island, or gain a major or minor power. Revealing more slots on their spirit board allows them to increase the amount of energy and cards they can play each turn. Placing presence tokens on the island allows their influence on the island to grow. If a player chooses to gain a power card, they draw the top 4 from any deck and decide which card they want to keep. If they choose a major power, they need to discard a card and replace it with the new major power.

After each player has taken their growth action, they then decide what, if any, fast power cards they want to use. To use a card, pay the energy cost and use it. Players can only play the number of cards that are indicated on their spirit board. In addition to the effects on the cards, each card has elements that when combined, unlock more abilities for that turn. Each spirit works with different elements, so deciding when and what cards to play based on their element bonus, can provide great opportunities for the players. Card actions allow the spirits to damage the colonists and increase fear, move the Dahan around the island, or gather more strength.

Next, it is the invader’s turn. They take three actions in the same order each turn. First, they will ravage the area in the ravaged area of the board. Meaning, they attack it. If they cause more than two points of damage to the land, they have ravage it and placed a blight token from the blight pool. Remove on spirit influence token from the ravaged area. Each invader does 1 point, towns do 2, and cities do 3. Damage will also destroy the Dahan that were present, If any survive, they will fight back and can kill or even level towns. Each town and city destroyed increases fear, and if the fear pool is full, then a fear card is drawn and resolved at the beginning of the next invader phase; The more fear, the stronger the cards are. Next, the invaders will build in any land they occupy matching the land type on the explorer card. They will construct a city or town based on the strength of the invaders in that area. Finally, draw a new explorer card, and place one explorer in each area indicated on the card. Then discard the card in the ravage area, and move each card to the next slot so the area that was just built on this turn, will be ravaged next turn and the land just explored will be built on next. This is crucial information to use when the spirits are deciding what areas of the island to play their cards on.

Once the invaders are done, the spirits can play their slow power cards in the same way they played cards in the fast power phase. Again, discarding their played cards into their discard pile. In the time passes phase, players will discard all their played cards into their discard pile, which they can only use again with their reclaim cards action during their growth phase. The game continues until either the spirits have won based on what fear level they need to achieve for a victory, or the blight pool is empty and the spirits have lost.

This is not an easy game to master, it is simple mechanically to play, but the amount of decisions and the ever-constant growth of the invaders create one challenging puzzle. I have played both solo and multiplayer, and each one is just as challenging. This game may frustrate you, as you feel it is just too much to manage, and some feel that this game is just too hard to be fun. I am not in that category, I like a puzzle that requires a lot of thinking and challenging choices, and Spirit Island delivers. As I said earlier, there is a lot of game in this box. You can play with increased challenges that change what happens if the island exceeds a blight threshold, upping the victory conditions, or play against a specified nation with extra rules. The game has a strong AI engine so solo is not just a breeze, even with only one island section, the never-ending waves are a big problem. I have lost more than won but that makes the victory so much more satisfying.

Overall, for solo or cooperative play, Spirit Island is definitely one to be considered if you are looking for a complex puzzle that is simple to learn but difficult to master.

 

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